To be honest, it depends on whats the most you want from a processor. Gaming or Applications. If you want damn good gaming computer, no hands down go with the Athlon 3000. If you want damn good application proformance go with a Intel 3.2ghz 800FSB ++. Dont get me wrong AMD is very good with applications, but the best Intels beat the Best AMD in most application benchmarks.

All AMD 64 Bit Athlons have HT. Yes HT does matter. Im not sure if you really understand how it works, and why its good. So i will explan it to you.

A normal CPU does work like this (Unit)- 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8. So pretend your working on stacking boxs (DATA). And im throwing boxs at you, and sometimes i throw them to fast. So boxs (Data) arent getting stacked at the rate im throwing them. So they hit you and fall, creating (Lag).

But HT works like this.
(Unit)-1.3.5.7.
(Unit)-2.4.6.8.
This way im throwing boxs at you and another person is helping you out. Making the rate of Data processed faster.